Alright, here's the deal. If someone is making a tongue-in-cheek kung fu scene, there is always a character who suddenly pulls a pursed-lips expression, makes random mystical hand movements, and shouts a falsetto 'WOOOOOOO-ooooOOOO-WAHHHHHHHH!' Anyone doing this can automatically be written off as having zero martial arts talent - unless it's an elaborate Confusion Fu double-bluff...

Examples:

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Advertising

A series of Stanton Optical commercials invoke this trope with screaming eyeglasses.

Anime

Invoked Trope in Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai; in order to invoke the powers of the "martial arts" world he and Arumi found themselves in, Sasshi had to "embrace the form; even if he didn't have the substance." First he did the Bruce Lee thing with his nose, then started making noises; then he was Bruce Lee.

Sonny Chiba, especially in his early career and The Street Fighter series. Sure the faces he makes are giggle-inducing to a modern American audience... right up until you see him tear down a dozen mooks like a frakking animal.

Artemus Gordon pulls one of these in Wild Wild West, but only to distract Jim so he could press the Big Red Button on the wall behind him, activating a trap that essentially puts the latter mere inches above railroad track (they're on a moving train).

Jones does this in every Police Academy movie starting with the second one (Where he first demonstrates skill in martial arts). Since he's also a ventriloquist, he also makes it look like everything he says in those scenes is being badly dubbed in, just for fun.

Malaguita does a shuffle variation of this in Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley to intimidate Torrente, though he has real martial arts training and seems to be very skilled.

In The Magicians, Quentin invokes this before knocking open a cut-through door. The successful yet anticlimactic result may explain why Alice laughs.

Hugh Laurie's "The Gun Seller" has something like this at the start. To get the man trying to break his arm off him, the protagonist lets out "what Japanese martial artists refer to as a kiai - you'd probably call it a very loud noise, and that wouldn't be so far off - a scream of such blinding, shocking, what-the-fuck-was-that intensity, that I frightened myself rather badly."

This isn't actually a special technique for striking, it's just to shock his assailant for long enough to headbutt him in the face, kick him in the balls then smash his head in with a small statue.

Theo, the Blue Ranger in Power Rangers Jungle Fury, tended to make nonstop Bruce Lee noises during battle, notable in a series where most of the Rangers actually practiced Chinese-based martial arts and none of the rest felt the need to do that.

That very same year, the teamup movie between Engine Sentai Go-onger and Juken Sentai Gekiranger had a minor starting enemy named Nunchaku Banki who made these noises at all times. Regardless of whether he was attacking, jumping, getting hit, or painfully getting knocked across the battlefield by exceptionally powerful attacks, he still made these noises. It's possible this may have been a Take That against the above, but we'll probably never know.

Used hilariously on Chuck in an episode early in season 3. Chuck is unable to "flash" during a confrontation with a Ring operative he lured to the store to keep her away from Devon. So instead he tries to psyche the operative and her mooks out with this and a bit of posing, then takes off running.

Professional Wrestling

Jimmy Jacobs was known for doing this as IWA World Champion, when he got really cocky.

April Hunter at Shine, in mockery of Su Yung and Mia Yim.

Sketch Comedy

One of The Frantics' best known sketches, Ti Kwan Leep (sometimes mistakenly called "Boot To The Head") has Ed Gruberman attempting these.

Video Games

Bayonetta does so when have a combo really going while equipped with Sai Fung, which are nunchuk guns.

Raiden also fits this trope. He became notorious for yelling randomly while performing his Torpedo move in MKII. Fans originally believed that he was yelling Japanese phrases. Interestingly, others thought that he was actually speaking English, and thus Raiden's phrases were misinterpreted as "Get back in the car!", "Gimme ma money!", "I humped my dog!", "Freddy bought a car!", "Your mother's from L.A.!" or even "Santa Monica!" Midway eventually revealed that Raiden was just screaming gibberish noises, and not actual words of any language.

Marshall Law of Tekken, being a Bruce Lee Clone, obligatorily uttered these sounds. So did his son, Forrest.

Kim Dragon from World Heroes, being the first video game Bruce Lee Clone, obviously used them.

Touhou: Some versions of Hong Meiling have her use these, others use "JAAAOOOOO!"

Web Animation

Ruby uses these to describe her fighting style in RWBY. In an interesting variation, she really is that good. (Although fortunately she doesn't make said noises while actually using her fighting style.)

Happens in Don Hertzfeldt's Rejected, although they're not fighting, they're just flipping the fuck out because one guy's eye turned into a fountain of blood.

A crab perched on a rock does it to a group of seagulls in Finding Nemo. As the gulls are about to pick the crab apart (to raucous cries of "Mine!"), the crab waves its pincers and makes noise in stereotypical kung fu fashion before back-flipping itself back into the water.

Texas does this a lot in Motorcity. Probably because he actually does watch a lot of action movies.

The Kiai (yelling when striking) serves a number of different purposes, from the physiological (yelling firms up the core muscles, increases blood flow, and helps to keep you from getting the breath knocked out of you) to the psychological (yelling focuses your attention on the moment of the attack and may startle the opponent). The timbre of the yell makes little difference for most purposes. Yelling while warming up can serve many of the same purposes, including intimidation, increased blood flow, and increased focus. However, opening your mouth while fighting is a good way to get a broken jaw, which is why the participants of full contact martial arts matches, boxers and MMA fighters are less likely to kiai.

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